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539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms

Grammar and academic English | 279

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Adams 

believed that the Washington government must, for material as well as

moral reasons, fight an aggressive war for American commerce.

(compare: Adams may have believed/Adams probably believed …)

Hedging: modality

146b

Can, could, might and may

Broadly speaking, can, could, might and may are used in academic style in the

same way as they are used in general English, but one or two usages which are

more frequent in academic style are worth noting. Academic English often needs

to state possibilities rather than facts, and academics frequently hypothesise and

draw tentative conclusions.

Can

is often used to make fairly confident but not absolute assertions, in

contrast with could, might or may (see below):

These new insights into the multiple meanings of family 

can help us

understand the experience of transnational migration. 

(asserting a claim of what is normal, i.e. almost equivalent to ‘these new

insights … help us understand …’, but framed as ‘usually/normally’ rather than

‘always’)

Could

and might are used for more tentative assertions:

One 

could say that our concept of selfhood is radically contaminated by the

mind-set of ‘this is mine’, ‘I am this’.

[consultant (A) tutoring a student doctor]

A: Right. Very good. What do you think might have happened since he left

hospital that caused this ulcer to break down yet again? 

B: He could have either occluded his graft. 

A: Yes. 

B: Or the area could have become infected. 

A: Okay. Now is there any clinical evidence that he might have occluded his

graft? 

[on the behaviour of young birds]

Thus, one 

might conclude that the predisposition to respond to pattern or

flicker only affects the further development of a preference in that it 

might help

to guide the young bird towards objects having these characteristics.

A particular use of may, which is very common in academic texts, is to describe

things which are likely to occur or which normally do occur. In this usage it is a

formal equivalent of can:

Parallel vertical pipes, several centimetres long and 1–2 mm thick, are common

in much of the unit, but especially in the middle part, where there 

may be

several in each cm horizontal section.

[on mental health and mental retardation]

The anger experience 

may culminate in a variety of behavioural reactions,

including aggression or withdrawal.

280 | Grammar and academic English

Cambridge Grammar of English

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May

is also widely used in a more general way in academic texts to make a

proposition more tentative. May is less tentative than could or might:

This change 

may also have been in progress in other counties.

[CFS = chronic fatigue syndrome]

Overall, one 

may conclude that the present study has shown that patients with

CFS have psychomotor impairments, problems maintaining attention, and are

visually sensitive.

Would

Would

is frequently used to hedge assertions which someone might challenge and

to make argumentative claims less direct when used with speech-act verbs such as

advocate

, argue, assume, claim, propose, suggest:

Given this, we 

would argue that the Iowa sample has provided a unique

opportunity to examine a number of important questions regarding

schizophrenia, including the issue of mortality.

Theoretically, one 

would assume that this increased bacterial mass would

synthesize more enzymes.

[lecture on the teaching of language and literature]

And students think that by reading a text, getting the information from it, they

have understood it. They are, I 

would suggest, full of the understanding of one

level: the referential meaning. 

Would

is also frequently used with appear and seem:

It 

would seem that in this domain, as in so many others, the north was more

favoured than the south. 

(compare the more assertive: It seems that in this domain …)